Wayne State University Athletics

Danosi, a native of Budapest, Hungary, and graduate of Southfield HS, was a four-year letter winner in 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975 as a sabreur on Wayne State's men's fencing teams, and the 1974 NCAA National Sabre Champion, the second sabreur to win the national title for WSU. Danosi joins his father, Maestro Istvan Danosi, as the first father-son combination in the Wayne State Athletic Hall of Fame. An Inductee in 1983, Istvan Danosi won five men's NCAA national championships and one women's NCAA championship during his 24-year coaching reign at Wayne State, with a 283-59 record. Steve Danosi was one of the 40 All-Americans coached by his father, garnering NCAA Sabre All-American status in 1972, 1973, and 1974. Only a torn Achilles tendon kept Danosi from appearing in the 1975 NCAA Men's Fencing Championships, where he was to defend his national sabre title. Instead, fellow sabreur Yuri Rabinovich went on to win his first NCAA National Sabre Championship, and the Tartars won Wayne State's first-ever NCAA Men's Fencing Championship. During his career at Wayne State, Danosi set sabreur records of 178-5 (.973) in dual matches 285-5 (.983) and overall matches. He was the Great Lakes Sabre Champion in 1972, 1973, 1974, and 1975, tearing his Achilles tendon between the Great Lakes Championship and the 1975 NCAA Men's Fencing Championship. Danosi's injury kept him from participating at the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics as a member of the U.S. sabre Olympic Team,he and retired from competitive fencing. Before joining Wayne State and during his collegiate career, Danosi was an outstanding junior and senior fencer, winning several national and regional titles in both sabre and foil. He captured the 1974 Michigan State Sabre Championship, the 1974 Midwest Senior Sabre Championship, the 1972 and 1971 Midwest Junior Sabre Championships, and the 1972 Michigan Open Sabre Championship. Danosi was the youngest ever to win the Michigan Senior Foil Championship, in 1970. He also won the 1970, 1969, and 1968 Michigan State Junior Foil Championships, and the 1971 National 19-and-under AFLA Sabre Championships. He was a member of the U.S. Junior Sabre Teams at the 1972 Madrid and 1973 Buenos Aires Under 20 World Championships, and also participated at the Luxardo Invitational at Padua, Italy, and the World University Games in Moscow. At the 1972 U.S. National Junior Olympic Championships, Danosi captured the sabre national championship. In 1975, Danosi was the first Wayne State athlete to receive the Donnelly Award, given each winter semester to a male and female student for outstanding academic and extracurricular achievement. He received a Bachelor's in Biology in 1975 from Wayne, and also received the University's first NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, which he used at the WSU Medical School, receiving his medical degree in 1979. Danosi served as director of emergency services at Grace Hospital, and was a clinical instructor in surgery at Wayne State's Medical School. Danosi and his wife, Kimberly, reside in Southfield.